T cells fight pathogens and tumors: Researchers from the Universities of Tübingen and Lübeck present a simple and fast method to rapidly assess their function. The new method identifies structural changes in the integrins, certain molecules expressed on the cell surface of the T cells, and thus detects whether the T lymphocytes are working effectively. Credit: Stoyan...
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Prediction method for epileptic seizures developed
Epileptic seizures strike with little warning and nearly one-third of people living with epilepsy are resistant to treatment that controls these attacks. More than 65 million people worldwide are living with epilepsy. Now researchers at the University of Sydney have used advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning to develop a generalized method to predict when seizures will...
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Some blood stem cells are better than others
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA – HEALTH SCIENCES In your body, blood stem cells produce approximately 10 billion new white blood cells, which are also known as immune cells, each and every day. Even more remarkably, if some of these blood stem cells fail to do their part, then other blood stem cells pick up their...
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NUS scientists discover a new way to control blood pressure
Singapore, 30 May 2018 – New and better ways to fight hypertension and low blood pressure may be in the offing, thanks to the National University of Singapore scientists’ discovery of how our blood pressure is controlled. The finding by the multidisciplinary team from the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (NUS Medicine) was...
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Body knows best: A natural healing mechanism for inflammatory bowel disease
The findings suggest that boosting signals in certain cells and not in others might even help treat colon cancer WEIZMANN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE Treating inflammatory diseases of the bowel is extremely challenging: Genes, gut microbes and disrupted immune function all contribute. Weizmann Institute of Science researchers are proposing a way around this complexity. In a study in...
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After 40 years in limbo: Styrene is probably carcinogenic
With register-based research from Aarhus University, Denmark, providing new human evidence, WHO has determined that styrene which is found in plastic products is probably carcinogenic for humans. The decision cements the value of the Danish registers AARHUS UNIVERSITY “Possibly carcinogenic and should be investigated more closely.” For forty years, this has been the conclusion of researchers who have been...
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‘Second brain’ neurons keep colon moving
Millions of neurons in the gastrointestinal tract coordinate their activity to generate the muscle contractions that propel waste through the last leg of the digestive system, according to a study of isolated mouse colons published in JNeurosci. The newly identified neuronal firing pattern may represent an early feature preserved through the evolution of nervous systems. The...
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Male thyroid cancer survivors face 50 percent higher risk of heart disease than women
Male thyroid cancer survivors have a nearly 50 percent higher risk of developing heart disease than women within five years of cancer diagnosis, according to a new study published in the Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. Thyroid cancer occurs when cancerous tumors or nodules grow in the thyroid, the butterfly-shaped gland at the front of...
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Is the placenta the missing link connecting genes, environment and schizophrenia?
A compelling new study suggests that activity in the placenta could be the missing link connecting environmental factors with genetics in relation to the development of many behavioral disorders, including schizophrenia. Stresses in the placenta could be key in triggering the onset of a variety of neurodevelopmental disorders including schizophrenia(Credit: alphaspirit/Depositphotos) A large volume of recent research has...
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A protein activated by nicotine provides insight into how fat cells burn energy
Weight gain has often been noted as a side effect of quitting smoking, and research has well established that nicotine can function as an appetite suppressant. A new study has now uncovered a novel mechanism showing how nicotine directly activates a protein that signals a type of fat cell to start burning energy. Beige fat cells have...